The present invention is directed toward a gaming system and, more particularly, toward such a system which employs a plurality of slot machines in combination with a racing game.
Traditional slot machines commonly in use are normally stand-alone devices intended to be played by a single player. The player inserts one or more coins therein and either pushes a button or pulls a lever to initiate the play. Depending on the final position of the spinning wheels within the slot machine, the machine determines whether or not and how much the player has won.
Slot machines are normally a lucrative source of income for a casino. That is, they generally produce more income per square foot of floor space than table games such as black jack or craps or the like. However, slot players often become bored, particularly when they are losing. They may, therefore, stop playing and leave or look for a different machine. Furthermore, players are always playing against the house rather than against other players as they do in games such as poker.
In an attempt to maintain slot players' interest in playing slot machines, progressive jackpots have been added. In a progressive jackpot, a number of machines are electronically tied together and all players are competing to win a jackpot amount which would exceed the amount that could normally be won on their particular machine. Each time there is no winner, the amount of the jackpot increases based on the amount of money being played in the machines.
With a progressive jackpot arrangement, each player is still playing only against the house. He is not truly playing against the other players. He wins only if the wheels in his machine stop in the unique combination which indicates that the jackpot has been won. He is then awarded that jackpot and the progressive jackpot amount resets and begins to grow again.
The playing of slot machines is also not normally a spectator sport. In fact, it can be somewhat difficult to look over a player's shoulder in order to see the movement of the wheels of a slot machine. And it can also become quite boring to merely stand and watch. To make this somewhat more enjoyable, extremely large machines have been made which can be viewed by a number of people as the player inserts coins and pulls the handle. These machines, however, are only capable of taking in substantially the same fixed number of coins as a much smaller machine during any period of time yet they take up substantially more floor space, thereby decreasing a casino's revenues.
There have been systems proposed in the past for combining a plurality of slot machines together in order to make the game more enjoyable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,907, for example, discloses a system wherein a plurality of subordinate slot machines have their outputs connected to a main machine with a large display thereon. The display on the main machine allows the players and spectators to observe the progress and results of a game. However, there is no competition between the players. The large display on the main machine is apparently identical to the display shown on one of the subordinate machines. The patent states that an object of the game is to provide the players with a feeling of togetherness so that they will enjoy it more.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,171 discloses a slot machine which is attached to an auxiliary game in the form of a cage carrying numbered lottery balls which is arranged to rotate and to release one of the balls into a transparent tube. If the player does not win with the slot machine, the auxiliary game is activated so that he has a second chance to win. The auxiliary game, however, is associated with only one slot machine and does not provide competition amongst several machines.
Although not believed to ever have been used in connection with a casino game, horse racing games have been known for some time in the carnival and amusement park business. One known game includes a display in the form of a race track mounted on a wall with a plurality of movable horses. Each horse is mounted on a chain that can be moved by an electrically operated stepping motor. Utilizing a water pistol, each player attempts to strike a target and each time that the target is hit, his horse is moved by a predetermined fixed amount. The player who hits the target the most times advances his horse to the finish line and is awarded a prize.
Variations on the above-described horse racing game have also been known such as having to successfully toss a ball into a basket or other target in order t advance the horse. Electronic competitive horse racing games have also been proposed such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,717,345 and 5,186,460. Each of these games requires the player to skillfully manipulate a lever, button or wheel or the like in order to advance his horse in an attempt to get to the finish line before the others.
These known racing games can provide competition between and excitement amongst the players and can also evoke substantial excitement amongst the spectators. Such games, however, are not readily adaptable for play within a casino. While they may be entertaining, they are incapable of generating the revenues that would be needed in order to justify the space that they take up.
To Applicants' knowledge, no one has ever proposed combining a plurality of slot machines or other types of gaming machines in a single system in such a way as to create true competition amongst the players and which would also be entertaining for both the players and the spectators.